Professional Development League - Millwall 1 Huddersfield Town 1 - Admission £5 - Teamsheet free - Attendance less than 100

Lots of choices for afternoon matches in this League in South London with Charlton and Crystal Palace at home too, however I chose this one to visit.

The first half was competitive with a few bookings. Huddersfield took the lead on 15 minutes when Jordan Williams ran down the right despite being pulled back twice by Noah Chesmain, squared for Lewis O'Brien whose shot was blocked by the keeper, Ryan Sandford, but the ball fell kindly to Olly Dyson to score. Millwall won a penalty just after the half hour when Noel Leighton was brought down by Ramani Edmonds-Green in the area, but Leighton's spot kick was saved by Luke Coddington to his left. Millwall did equalise in first half injury time when Leighton ran from near to the halfway line into the area before finding the bottom left corner.

Not a lot to be excited about in the second half with chances at a premium.

On a wet evening at the War Memorial Ground, Stour made hard work of seeing off their youthful visitors, who took the lead just before the break. They defended quite splendidly until the Glassboys were awarded a penalty with a quarter of an hour to go; this was tucked away by Benbow and two more late goals sealed a victory that was far from comfortable. Felt a little sorry for Ilkeston, but the feeling soon passed. Stour's patience and persistence were rewarded, it could be said.

Plenty of faces in hoppers' corner this evening including Bradshaw, Mr Partridge and most of the Worcester Mafia. Also good to see Bob L Hatt here for the first time in 20 years. Sorry you didn't see a better game, Mr Hatt. Highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the faggots and chips, in fine fettle as ever.

Hungerford are clearly having a good season but needed to come from behind after a poor start tonight. Defended awfully first 30 minutes and could have been more than 1 down. Second half they started the better side as well but a scrappy goal mouth scramble eventually smashed it got the home side back involved. Then the home sides winger did well to get between two defenders then decided to take another on and went down, Harsh for me but ref didn't see it that way. Pen converted. Post pen it all kicked off in the crowd which I haven't see on my travels for a while. Group of Hungerford yoofs had been giving it the big'un and so after the pen went in 2 WSM fans just went straight for them, was quite amusing - punches traded for 30 seconds before TWO stewards managed to separate everyone.

On a wet evening at the War Memorial Ground, Stour made hard work of seeing off their youthful visitors, who took the lead just before the break. They defended quite splendidly until the Glassboys were awarded a penalty with a quarter of an hour to go; this was tucked away by Benbow and two more late goals sealed a victory that was far from comfortable. Felt a little sorry for Ilkeston, but the feeling soon passed. Stour's patience and persistence were rewarded, it could be said.

Plenty of faces in hoppers' corner this evening including Bradshaw, Mr Partridge and most of the Worcester Mafia. Also good to see Bob L Hatt here for the first time in 20 years. Sorry you didn't see a better game, Mr Hatt. Highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the faggots and chips, in fine fettle as ever.

Thanks Mr Tim - a thoroughly enjoyable evening all the same, only dampened by a brief delay near Hilton Park Services on on the way back caused by a combination of closed lanes and a broken down white van.

Amblecote looks a significantly tidier place since my last visit, September 1999 I can confirm, and the atmosphere was very good.

A proper club, history, tradition and great support, I wish them well.

....Never a chore to venture to Dulwich these days, always a atmosphere quite unique in the straitened world of the Isthmian League (though with the low crowd it was quite a subdued atmosphere on this occasion) and one of those venues where seeing a dull contest with The Nulls being in attendance is rare, this is largely due to the quick attacking nature of their play.

Good contest on this occasion with Dulwich in pursuit of a Play Off berth where they have a number of crucial contests in the coming days including back to back matches with big bucks Billericay. Kingstonian are doing their level best to ingratiate themselves with those seeking the Isthmian Regional leagues and their defence was opened all too frequently especially on their right where the likes of Camara and Sekajja were afforded huge amounts of space and the accompanying time to put over crosses into the middle.

The hosts quickly in front when Carew's free kick sped through to the back post where it clearly rebounded off of Wassmer's hand leading to the ref instantly pointing in the direction of the penalty spot and as Carew sent the resultant penalty to his left, Tolfrey in the Kingstonian goal went to his left.

For most of the first half, Tolfrey was the difference between a hefty half time lead for Dulwich and a more manageable single goal interval deficit for the visitors. He pulled off an acrobatic save to push away on Sekajja's volley and then was quickly off his line to save from Akinyemi as the latter perhaps took one touch too many. Sekajja would have been disappointed to place a free header over the angle when unmarked at the back post. However, it was a first half that showed that Dulwich were playing with confidence and plenty of ability and in contrast Kingstonian were playing collectively like frit rabbits entranced by the headlights of a car driven by Mr Relegation.

No change in the pattern of play in the second half apart from the fact that two quick goals from Dulwich gave the hosts an insurmountable advantage. The first from Sekkajja whose pace was always difficult for Kingstonian to contend with breaking clear of the visiting defence and although Tolfrey did half block Sekajja's shot it squirmed underneath his body and found the net. Tolfrey then pulled off a flying save pushing away a goalbound header from Kargbo, which to use this decades parlance would be described as a 'worldie'. However, to keep the score down, Tolfrey required a degree of defensive cover around him and Clunis was afforded an expanse of space and the time to place a low cross for Akinyemi to easily convert from close range/

With a plethora of important games in forthcoming weeks and with a healthy three goal advantage, not surprising that Dulwich wound down proceedings. A free kick placed through a flimsily constructed wall by Pico Gomez for the visitors reduced the deficit by one taking Edwards by surprise. For a few minutes afterwards, Kingstonian showed a degree of attacking acumen not previously seen and if Moss' attempt to beat Edwards had more power and had found the net rather than being a fairly routine save for the latter then Dulwich would have been looking at a nervy final few minutes. However, in the first minute of stoppage time a not particularly well struck effort from Sekajja took a deflection thus wrong footing Tolfrey to re-establish the hosts three goal lead, This was quickly reduced to two when Turner placed a shot wide of Edwards for a goal whose only importance was to reduce the visitors GD by 1.

Good evening out involving the obligatory easy journey there and back and hope that it can be replicated on Wednesday evening.....

Henley Town 1 Wokingham & Emmbrook 3, Reading Invitation Cup QF, Att: 75, Admission £5 (even though it said £4 on the poster in the club), Prog: No

Taking advantage of a game on the way back from Dorset, this was the only sensible option of a new ground. This was Wokingham & Emmbrook's home tie initially, but home advantage was conceded to enable the game to be played under lights. I'm sure Henley's ground is very pleasant in the daylight, surrounded as it is by trees, however I was slightly underwhelmed by its' two kit stands (seats on the clubhouse side, metal terracing behind the car park goal) and the plastic post and double rail pitch surround. The game was mostly dominated by Wokingham & Emmbrook against a young Henley outfit, not helped by a sending off for reasons unknown in the second half, however by then the game was already over as a contest. Home just before half past midnight in 2hrs 45, dodging a bullet when I was last car through before the M40 closed at J15 and despite several one lane stretches on both the M40 and M6.

A niggly but watchable game, as I ventured to Ruislip for the second time in a week. No goals at half time, but Weladstone had a player sent off mid way through the second half. Concord soon went ahead, as one of their players was lying injured in the penalty area, a player had a long shot probably expecting it to go wide, but instead it went in off the post. So they were 1-0 up and the injured player could get treatment! Wealdstone equalised in the 83rd minute with a shot that seemed to go through the keeper. There were lots of cards and plenty of moaning from both teams. The programme is rather full of itself. It is probably the only programme that describes itself as 'award winning programme' rather than 'official programme'. It is good though. Toby Jackson is still there selling his badges after all these years. He has an amazing selection. He even has one from the Tibetan FA. Almost made me regret giving up collecting them. Although the match didn't finish until 9.41 I still caught the 10.41 from Watford to Northampton.

A look at this weeks weather persuaded me to stump up the Bridge toll for this one, plus it gave me the chance to meet up with the Swindon Hopping fraternity. I didn't expect much from 3rd bottom v bottom of this League and the first 20 minutes looked to live down to that. However Woodstock scored a very good goal which then sparked New College into life. At first they overplayed in front of goal, but they made their dominance count in the 2nd half and should probably have scored more. They hit the post and bar a few times too. Not a bad game, at least both teams tried to play attractive football.

I still think this is a horrible ground, like watching a game in a container park. Can't complain with Monday night games though...decent night out in good company.

Henley Town 1 Wokingham & Emmbrook 3, Reading Invitation Cup QF, Att: 75, Admission £5 (even though it said £4 on the poster in the club), Prog: No

Taking advantage of a game on the way back from Dorset, this was the only sensible option of a new ground. This was Wokingham & Emmbrook's home tie initially, but home advantage was conceded to enable the game to be played under lights. I'm sure Henley's ground is very pleasant in the daylight, surrounded as it is by trees, however I was slightly underwhelmed by its' two kit stands (seats on the clubhouse side, metal terracing behind the car park goal) and the plastic post and double rail pitch surround. The game was mostly dominated by Wokingham & Emmbrook against a young Henley outfit, not helped by a sending off for reasons unknown in the second half, however by then the game was already over as a contest. Home just before half past midnight in 2hrs 45, dodging a bullet when I was last car through before the M40 closed at J15 and despite several one lane stretches on both the M40 and M6.

Indeed it was our lowest crowd of the season, thankfully swelled by the 'bitter & twisted' faithful from Kingsmeadow/levred to be. We have a run of home games, Monday, tonight and Saturday, so it will be a case of more 'diehards' at each and every of these. When Gavin Rose took over as manager in 2009/10 our average home crowd for league games was 180, so I'll cope with 'only' 595 last night. In fact our midweek gates are much lower generally, than our Saturday ones, as midweek you'll notice a huge drop in our large family following, as in families who come along with young children, who simply don't come out late on school nights. I would expect a similar crowd for tonight, with us back to our thousand plus norm on Saturday....

Facilities: Entrance to pitch is via main rugby club up on the left past the entrance to the Webbs Stadium opposite (Supermarine FC). You can also park immediately off to the left down by the sub-aqua club and I even saw a couple of locals walk in through the gate down there. Medium-sized bar had Doom Bar or Worthington's on draught + lager cider Guinness etc Had bottle of Ramsbury Amber at HT which hails from Aldbourne down the other side of the M4 towards Marlborough.

NCS now play on the Pitch back closest to A361.

Started 5' late

Match: good contest first half - not evident that Woodstock had shipped 11 on Saturday as they covered quite well and looked threatening on the break but visitors back-line tired in front of some good movement and pace from the 'students' for whom the No 9 bagged a hat-trick.

Spent 2nd half in convivial company of 'Mr P&TG' who was 'scouting' NCS, ahead of hosting them in the Supplementary Cup tie at the w/e - I don't think he saw anything that would overly trouble the Div One East leaders.

M4 closed E-bound jn 13-12 and littered with cones/lane closures beyond that - diverted down A34 so back home via Newbury/Thatcham A4 - indoors by about 22:45

also managed to get along to this one ... and lurk about as one of those hopper types ..

Travelled - up A34 and then joined Royals route in .. had to go cross country from Winchester on way back, as M27 closed J7 to J9. Weather - it felt cold. Colours - New College in all blue .. Woodstock in all red.

All well summed up by fellow visitors above .. pleased that Woodstock got going early, especially after Saturday's heavy defeat at Fairford Town .. but with fitness telling and heads dropping, it became easy pickings for our hosts into the second, under some nice bright floodlights .. although the surrounding pitch side plywood panels (with holes), had that feel of Scours Lane for some reason .. and the shipping containers certainly need some thoughts for the future .. pitch was a decent surface though .. allowing plenty of goals .. the first going in on 32, with left foot shot across goal getting Woodstock underway .. but pulled back by the Students before the break when head tennis was pounced on and smashed in off the bar (see video link) .. 1-1 at the half .. then a scrambled effort with shot through legs .. there was also an unfortunate rebound finding a lurking forward to easily dispatch inside near post (see video link) .. and one I missed but must of been easy considering the number of blue shirts about, with hardly any red about .. all very enjoyable .. and once again .. the venues in the HEL1W are completed ..

.. for your entertainment .. a couple of the Student goals from the video feeds,

Grounds Visited = 414, Games in 17-18 Season = 29; New Grounds this Season = 20; Goals seen this Season = 107; Ave goals / game = 3.69; Last new ground = Scunthorpe United; Next Game = Tues 26th Sept 2017